CEDAW To Review Countries' Treatment of Women

28 February, 1997

At the conclusion of its last session in New York on 1 February, 1997,
the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
(CEDAW) approved its schedule of countries to be reviewed at its next
two sessions. For the first time, CEDAW will have two sessions per
year. The countries that have been invited to the July 1997 session
are as follows:

first reports:

Antigua and Barbuda
Armenia
Israel
Namibia
Luxembourg

Second reports:

Dominican Republic
Argentina
Italy

Third and Fourth reports:

Bangladesh
Australia

These countries have until the middle of April to confirm whether or
not they will send a delegation to attend the session. If a country
or countries decline, substitutes will be selected from a reserve list,
which in this case nearly coincides with the list of countries invited
to be reviewed at the January 1998 session. The reserve list for July
1997 is as follows:

First Reports:

Azerbaijan
Belize
Croatia
Zimbabwe

Second Reports:

Equatorial Guinea
Bulgaria
Republic of Korea

The list of countries that have been invited to be reviewed by CEDAW in
January 1998 are as follows:

First reports:

Azerbaijan
Belize
Croatia
Zaire
Zimbabwe

Second reports:

Bulgaria
Equatorial Guinea
Indonesia

Third reports

Mexico
Republic of Korea

(no reserve list is available yet for the January 1998 session)

CEDAW welcomes NGO information that will shed light on the
implementation of the Convention in countries being reviewed. These
reports are treated as public information, although contributing
organizations need not be identified. CEDAW urges that information be
presented in a timely fashion so that there is time to review the
material before questions are formulated for the government
delegations. This means at least a month in advance. NGO reports need
to be available to the Committee in at least one UN language.

IWRAW is an international NGO that facilitates NGO access to the CEDAW
Committee and provides the Committee with NGO information for use in
its monitoring activities. Please contact us if you wish further
information about CEDAW's reporting and review process. IWRAW urges
NGOs either to prepare a shadow report of their own, or to submit
information through IWRAW that they wish the Committee to take into
consideration in its review of State parties.